[sushantr5]

There will be always confusion for pricing of public transport,
1. Whether to price for sustainability of Public Transport
2. Or Price it for accessibility of poor people

If you look at the poverty and income disparity in our country, then higher priced public transport will hamper the growth of poor people. If public transport is not affordable then the mobility of people and hence economy gets constrained. Reality of India that we have really major portion of people living in hand to mouth situation.

If we make service affordable or free, then there will be question of sustainability of services. Government has tough job of balancing between two.

And then there is also difference if you offer free services to men compared to women. The reason why National Literacy mission has emphasized making at least one women in a household literate.

And the last question comes about safety, which I doubt how much purpose this move will serve immediately. But in long run it will contribute in the change of mentality of male chauvinist Society.

Considering all above aspects I would rate the move is good move.

Pointwise benefits and loss of this move,

1. More women will come out for work.
2. Women can increase area of work.
3. Family economics will be benefited by this move. Mostly poor families and widowed will get massive relief.
4. As it said it will cost additionally 700 cr to Govt. Hopefully economic activity and upliftment of families will compensate for this. Though Govt will not be benefited by this move in terms of money directly.
5. If we are worried about spending of Tax Money being spent on freebies then please remember transportation is basic need of people and reed of economic developement. It is not same as giving TV or Laptop for free. It is similar scheme to offering free Gas connection to poor family. But in this scheme rich women are also benefited, and next reason is why
6. Other thing is that, why give it free to all women at least exclude elite class women from this. But if you think carefully earlier reasons were for enablement of women but this one is done for betterment of women. Women ratio in Public will improve because of this step. Presence of women will be felt in society and then society mindset starts changing slowly.
7. Future needs, Public Transport to rethink their revenue mechanism. I see trend towards free public transportation to get rid of dependency of cars and other polluting means. World can not achieve goals for Green World unless people adopt public transport on mass scale and abandon personal cars. Even I heard a news in Germany that there was a thought to offer Regional Train transfers for free.

Finally Initiative is good, but it will boil down to the implementation. Extra care should be taken
1. The body which runs transport should not incur loss due to this. Govt should refund correct costs to the body.
2. Services shall not be affected or quality either. General improvement rate shall be maintained.
3. There is need to massively reorganize, increase fleet.

I will equally welcome this decision irrespective of whichever party is in power.

[fine69]

Why do people think CCTVs are going to have an impact on women safety.

Just because an incident gets captured doesn't mean zilch to the law enforcers. My wife's bag was snatched and the cops wouldn't file the FIR with the exact sequence of events that actually unfolded in spite of the fact that everything was captured on CCTV.

It was her first (and hopefully last) encounter with the corrupt scum in the name of law keepers and she just wouldn't stop asking me why the cops wouldn't document the events as they unfolded. There was a PCR stationed nearby which had given up the chase just because the snatchers went on the wrong side of the road. I'm sure I don't need to explain anybody here why the cops wouldn't document the exact sequence of events.

Forget lame CCTVs with 1 megapixel 480p quality, almost every month there are clips getting circulated of women getting harassed, couples getting beaten in Full HD and when that doesn't improve safety why do we think a CCTV would make any difference.

Most of the women workers that I employ have a monthly bus pass because what is spare change to us makes a significant impact on their monthly budget. Now imagine if they didn't even have to get the pass, its like diwali bonus to this lot. Few of them are single mothers which means anything saved goes in their kids education unlike a lot of men workers where a penny saved is a penny's worth more of alcohol.

A lot of my workers have to change multiple buses and they'd rather walk a few hundred meters or at times kilometers because that way they'd save 20-40 rupees per day. For women, generally in winter dusk time, this means an additional task of dodging harassers. Please get in touch with these ladies and they'll tell you how much of an impact this makes from a safety standpoint.

Then there's the whole issue of taking the bus in the first place. A lot of my workers would most definitely prefer a Metro over the bus but that means inflated commuting costs. If at least women get a free ride then most that come from far off places would happily switch to Metro which we all agree is even safer than a DTC bus.

[Ranabegins]

Originally Posted by sinharishi

Finest, yes, agreed. Priced very well? No. The fares have doubled in last 3 years. A ride which costed me 25 bucks one way from one end to another, costs 50 now.

I agree that the fare has doubled but the increase was due for a long time, in the past few years the purchasing power of people has also increased, Alto used to the highest selling car and it was replaced by Swift.

When you compare this to a cab or even a DTC AC bus you are paying less. Good quality transport service needs good quality costs to maintain the quality.

[sinharishi]

Originally Posted by Ranabegins

Good quality transport service needs good quality costs to maintain the quality.

And here we are talking about making it free? How about reduced prices for all genders? Delhi govt. as it is are ready to pay up for the losses incurred.

DTC AC bus maximum fare is 25/- within Delhi routes, East Delhi to Gurgaon services cost 50/-, which is same as metro (Card fare, token is 60/-).

What can be done instead is investing in safer transport for the 'last mile' connectivity to the metro stations.

[pandey.jai]

I feel like all the feminist groups should come out against this political move. Women's safety is being used for political gain. Why are those advocating for women's equality not raising their voice against this decision.

[Elito11]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

Totally revolutionising government school education, health care, water supply and electricity where the rates havent risen for the last few years now along with restricting arbitrary fee hikes by private schools and all this is from a government which has a fractured governance structure in Delhi which has been in power for a grand total of 4 years! I pray to god that people dont fall for stupid propaganda and dont vote this government out.

You still havent explained how it will hurt the metro?

1) No is denying the good work done by AAP in delhi. I praise them for reging the power tariff's and effort to provide quality medicare in govt hospitals. They also id a great job with much needed infra upgrade in govt schools. However that has got nothing to do with this particular move. FACT

Its a common fallacy. No one or nothing does a great job all the time. This move in its current form is crazy!

2) Because nothing in this world is free and also as much as we desire 'big sweeping changes', policy/law making requires nuance and long term thinking.

3) Please accept my apologies if i don't reply further as i don't wish to enter into a political debate. Thanks

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by Elito11

2) Because nothing in this world is free and also as much as we desire 'big sweeping changes', policy/law making requires nuance and long term thinking.

Why is this being looked at as a freebie? I look at it as an affirmative action.

Originally Posted by Elito11

3) Please accept my apologies if i don't reply further as i don't wish to enter into a political debate. Thanks

I respect your choice. Dont worry.

Originally Posted by NH08

The report needs to be seen in correct perspective. It is not the second most expensive public transport in the world, it is so in the nine inexpensive metro systems selected for study.

Headline of that report gives a wrong impression. This is how media sell its stories.

While the headline is sensational, I cannot fault the perspective. We cannot compare the prices with the developed world and proclaim we are cheaper. The minimum wage in Melbourne, where i live, is $20 an hour and the daily maximum to travel in the public transport is $8.60, less than half the hourly wage.

[kiku007]

What if the word, "safety" is replaced with the word "empowerment"? Would any of your opinions change?

I don't think this step would make it more safer for women but I can see some positive effects like the below,

1. Household savings will increase which will fuel spending on other stuff.
2. Women will save time on travel since they will take the quickest (and not the cheapest) public transport. This will again mean more productivity and family time.

I don't know about Delhi but in Chennai a lot of low wage earners are being resettled from inner city to outer suburbs for several reasons. These people spend so much more on public transport. You don't realise how much they'll welcome such free public transport measures.

[pandey.jai]

Originally Posted by kiku007

What if the word, "safety" is replaced with the word "empowerment"? Would any of your opinions change?

I don't think this step would make it more safer for women but I can see some positive effects like the below,

1
2

I don't know about Delhi but in Chennai a lot of low wage earners are being resettled from inner city to outer suburbs for several reasons. These people spend so much more on public transport. You don't realise how much they'll welcome such free public transport measures.

Wouldn't these also apply to men? So by rational, why not make it free for men too? Why the gender bias here?


Also- I'm no economist but I do feel the price of tickets will need to be increased to offset the freebie. So the household income argument may not apply.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by pandey.jai

Wouldn't these also apply to men? So by rational, why not make it free for men too? Why the gender bias here?


Also- I'm no economist but I do feel the price of tickets will need to be increased to offset the freebie. So the household income argument may not apply.

Delhi government, as far as i know, does not have a say in the fares. It is decided by the centre else they would not have gone up at first place. Second, they are making it free by paying for the privilege from the budget so DMRC wont feel the pinch of reduced revenue.

[pandey.jai]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

Second, they are making it free by paying for the privilege from the budget so DMRC wont feel the pinch of reduced revenue.

That's even worse because then the burden is passed on to only the tax paying citizens and it is a very well established fact that in India, the majority don't pay taxes!

Edit: I saw that the burden of this scheme is Rs 700 crore a year- that's definitely not pocket change if it is being distributed through the budget.

[FrozeninTime]

Originally Posted by pandey.jai

I saw that the burden of this scheme is Rs 700 crore a year- that's definitely not pocket change if it is being distributed through the budget.

An Excellent analysis by veteran journalist Shekar Gupta on the issue of free public transportation for women in Delhi.

https://youtu.be/vwO-wl32X3E

[kiku007]

Originally Posted by pandey.jai

Wouldn't these also apply to men? So by rational, why not make it free for men too? Why the gender bias here?

So do you agree on the social benefits but wonder why it's only for women?

It'll be better if you talk to a cross section of women across income levels and geographies to understand who the society treats them differently and I hope that'll help understand the rationale.

Originally Posted by pandey.jai

Also- I'm no economist but I do feel the price of tickets will need to be increased to offset the freebie. So the household income argument may not apply.

From what little I know, so far they haven't proposed any fare hikes but the money has to come from somewhere right? It's from the state's coffers which is filled by the public. So the term 'Free' is always questionable and that's a different topic by itself.

Please don't measure the impact of such social measures, like profit and loss in a ledger book. Many decades back, the TamilNadu government offered free noon-meal for children at Government run schools. I don't know if they were able to measure this in monetary value and show but they were able to prove the effectiveness in increased enrolments and decreased dropout rates.

At best, give this a chance. If it doesn't work, they'll scrap it. This is much better than the Odd-Even cars idea.

[roby_dk]

Originally Posted by FrozeninTime

An Excellent analysis by veteran journalist Shekar Gupta on the issue of free public transportation for women in Delhi.

Awesome and thanks for sharing.

Must listen to him, the Broken Window Fraud. I am strictly against the idea of freebies. He explained nicely with all facts n figures. That said, inviting people for free meal in a restaurant which has no food seems perfect for the situation.

I can share a real life example, we were recently offered a free holiday coupon from Club Mahindra for attending their session with terms and condition and subject to availability. We were never able to book the resort within the stipulated time and the coupons got expired. No one gives anything for free.

[NH08]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

While the headline is sensational, I cannot fault the perspective. We cannot compare the prices with the developed world and proclaim we are cheaper.

We don't want to compare the prices with developed world but when it comes to quality, we want it to equal those of developed world.

The average per capita income in Delhi is Rs. 3.6 lakh per annum i.e. 30,000 per month. Comparing it with average metro fare, metro travel doesn't seem expensive. Here, we need to consider average income (and not the minimum income) as proposed free travel is for all income groups.